USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Warren > The Congregational church, Warren, Connecticut, l750-1956 > Part 8
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In 1894 the church acted as host to the Litchfield North- west Conference. Seven of the twelve churches were repre- sented by pastor and other delegates. It was quite an under- taking for a small church in the pre-automobile age when access to Warren was not easy. Men with their two-horse teams drove the six miles to Cornwall Bridge-miles far long- er than they are today-to meet delegates arriving by train. No effort was spared to make the occasion successful; the "collation" was both bountiful and satisfying, and guests and hosts alike expressed themselves as well pleased with the result.
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Decreasing population in the town was inevitably re- flected in a steadly decreasing church memebrship, a condition which made pessimism regarding the future fully under- standable. In 1896 a systematic revision of the roll was un- dertaken to eliminate the names of inactive members, many of whom had moved away and ceased to maintain any con- nection with the church. As a result, the membership of the Sunday School was reduced from a nominal 125 to an actual 90, and that of the church from about 100 to approximately 60
The years of Mr. Gardner's ministry were years of quiet, faithful service. Dignified and unassuming, he devoted him- self with sincerity and earnestess to the welfare of his people; while Mrs. Gardner's warm, friendly spirit was felt through- out the community. He ended the official record as concisely as he had begun it: "I closed my labors on Sunday, Sept. 26, 1897. It was a beautiful Sabbath, almost a facsimile to my first Sabbath as Pastor of this church - - - May my succes- sor be permitted to spend eight as pleasant years as I have done among this people." He went from Warren to the church in Ashford, Connecticut, where he and Mrs. Gardner spent their closing years.
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CHAPTER VII.
A NEW CENTURY
REV. MYRON A. MUNSON, 1898 - 1903 REV. WILLIAM E. BROOKS, D.D., 1904 - 1906 REV. CHARLES A. PICKETT, 1907 - 1909 REV. VIRGIL W. BLACKMAN, 1910 - 1914 REV. FINIS E. DELZELL, 1915 - 1929
T THE nineteenth century was passing into history. It had been a century of significant achievement. National boundaries had been rolled back from the Mississippi to the Pacific and from Canada to the Rio Grande, and the entire territory had been proved, by means of a terrible war, to con- stitute one indivisible nation. Population had increased enor- mously and had been distributed over the entire vast expanse. Systems of communication had been developed, tying the country together. An economy that had been chiefly agricul- tural was becong largely industrial, and cities were growing rapidly. The man who stood at the gate of the twentieth cen- tury looked out over a very different world from that of his nineteenth century ancestor.
What was the effect of this transformation upon the small towns nestled among the Litchfield County hills ? For many of them the outlook was discouraging. Families were leaving the farms to find easier living and more remunerative employ- ment elsewhere. Many houses were being abandoned, and few if any were being built. Old residents pointed reminiscently to overgrown cellar holes and neglected clumps of lilac bushes which were all that was left of once prosperous and self-re-
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specting homes, and the land that had been so laboriously cleared was all too often reverting to stones and bushes.
On the other hand, the modern improvements which have made the rural towns once more attractive to newcomers had not yet arrived. Automobiles were a plaything of the well-to- do, while narrow roads and frightened horses made them a dangerous luxury for their owners and a dreaded menace in the community. Many a farmer wore a self-satisfied smirk when his ox-team was requisitioned to extricate a stranded automobile and prophesied, or at least hoped, that there would come a speedy extinction to all such modern contraptions. The first telephone appeared in Warren in 1898, when Mr. Finley Knapp, storekeeper and postmaster, installed a toll-station similar to the coin box of today. Rural delivery reached the town in 1902, with much injury to local pride when the name "Warren" disappeared from postal maps. Modern plumbing and electrical conveniences were still in the future as far as country homes were concerned; it was not until 1929 that the Connecticut Light and Power Company of New Milford ex- tended its lines to Warren, and not until ten years later that electricity was installed in the church. It was easy to be pessimistic about the future of the small towns, especially those which, like Warren, lay at a distance from the railroad and far from the growing centers of population.
The church inevitably reflected the discouragement of the town. Letters of dismissal were many and additions were few. Even minimum expenses were difficult to meet. Yet a small band of loyal members carried on, and the church main- tained its dignity and independence.
REV. MYRON A. MUNSON, 1898 - 1903
The minister whose service covered the turn of the cen- tury was the Rev. Myron A. Munson, a man of quiet and studious habits, a gentleman of the old school, an earnest and faithful pastor. It is not surprising that church records
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REV. FINIS E. DELZEL
register no conspicuous events during this period, but the man who served his people faithfully and unostentatiously through these outwardly uneventful years is entitled to an honored place in the long pastoral succession. After five years of service, feeling the weight of advancing years, Mr. Munson submitted his resignation. He and Mrs. Munson moved to West Hartford, where they lived until his death a few years later.
REV. WILLIAM E. BROOKS, D.D., 1904 - 1906
Dr. Brooks accepted the call to Warren against the advice of friends who urged that, at the age of seventy, after a long and eventful career, he should lay aside active pastoral respon- sibilities ; but to him the call offered another opportunity for service under conditions that he felt would not be too exacting for his advancing years .. Though his ministry in Warren was brief, the story of his full and colorful life should be recorded as another example of American initiative, courage, and de- votion to an ideal .*
William Eustis Brooks was born in Kingfield, Franklin County, Maine, in 1835. His mother died when he was three and his father seven years later, whereupon the boy went to live with his grandparents. Going to school meant rising early, doing the chores before breakfast, and walking more than two miles, summer or winter, to the little country school- house. Later he attended the academy in Skowhegan, living often on not more than fifty cents a week.
His grandmother saw no higher goal for him than the cobbler's trade, but William was determined, whatever the obstacles, to secure an education. Money was the prime neces- sity. Accordingly, at the age of twenty, in company with three friends, he set out on the month-long journey across the Isthmus of Panama for the gold fields of California. For two years he worked in the mines or, in dry times when water for washing the gold could not be obtained, on a reservoir that
*Memorial booklet published at the time of his death.
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was being built in the mountains. With the money thus earned, he returned to his native state and entered Waterville (now Colby) college from which he graduated with honors in the class of 1862.
To become a minister was his inflexible purpose, but now war had broken out and personal ambitions had to be put aside. He helped organize a regiment of Maine volunteers and was appointed First Lieutenant in that regiment. He served in a number of campaigns, became Captain of his Company, was wounded, and received an honorable discharge.
With resolution undaunted, he then entered Yale Theo- logical Seminary, from which he graduated in 1867 at the age of thirty-two. After brief pastorates in Derby, Clinton, and West Haven, he accepted the presidency of Tillotson Colle- giate and Normal Institute in Austin, Texas, where for five years he worked earnestly for the promotion of Negro edu- cation in the South. He served several churches in the Middle West, after which he returned to Maine to the First Congrega- tional Church in South Paris. After five years there he ac- cepted the call to the Warren church, somewhat broken in health but strong and courageous in spirit.
Dr. Brooks was a scholar as well as a man of action. He knew his Greek Testament well, and it was his custom every year to read the Old Testament through in the original Hebrew. In 1890 Colby College recognized his scholarship and service by awarding him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
The most memorable event of Dr. Brooks' Warren pastor- ate was the three-day celebration in 1906 of the one hundred- fiftieth anniversary. Building improvements included the ex- cavation of the basement and installation of a coal burning furnace, with the consequent removal of the unsightly stoves and long pipes. (An improved furnace was installed in 1937.) The interior was also redecorated for the occasion. It was said that no available artist would attempt to recreate the painted arch on the western wall, and in its place was painted
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in gold letters, the text: "The Lord Our God be with us as He was with our fathers. Let Him not leave us nor forsake us."
There was a great home-coming of former residents of the town and descendants of earlier inhabitants, while letters, reminiscences, and tributes abounded. Two daughter churches were represented, seven members of the church in Ruggles, Ohio, being present and two from the church in Waverly, Illinois. At the final meeting Deacon Franklin A. Curtiss acted as moderator, the last public service of his long life, and Mr. Noble B. Strong, who for many years had served as church clerk and in numerous other capacities, read the historical address. The observance in general befitted the dignity and importance of the occasion.
A friend of Dr. Brooks wrote: "Never shall I forget the scene when only a few weeks since at the 150th anniversary of the church in Warren (in the services of which he was unable to bear much part) as he stood in the desk and pointed to the names of the former pastors ranged about the galleries, he said, 'And the best of it all is that each one of these men has been loyal to Jesus Christ'. Yes! I said to myself, and no one of them has been more loyal than you yourself."
Soon after the sesquicentennial Dr. Brooks, because of failing health, submitted his resignation and he and Mrs. Brooks went to the home of a son in North Cambridge. Christ- mas Eve was a happy time for the family, but in the night he was stricken with apoplexy and he died two days later without regaining consciousness. He was buried in the family lot in Clinton where, in the early days of his ministry, they had laid at rest a little son, their first-born child.
REV. CHARLES A. PICKETT, 1907 - 1909
Dr. Brooks was followed by Mr. Charles Pickett. At the time of his coming to Warren Mr. Pickett was not an ordained minister, but in accordance with church polity, he was able, by special request of the church, to administer communion
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and perform other pastoral functions; and during his stay in Warren he was ordained. Mr. Pickett was an earnest man and a successful pastor, and it was with regret that the church gave him, at his own request, a letter of dismissal, recom- mending him to the Presbyterian Church in Winfield, West Virginia.
REV. VIRGIL W. BLACKMAN, 1910 - 1914
For a few months the pulpit was supplied by the Rev. Thomas M. Corson, a young man of superior ability and en- gaging personality. Mr. Corson had definite plans for his future, however, and after a short time he left to obtain fur- ther training before entering upon missionary service in Puerto Rico.
Mr. Blackman, who succeeded Mr. Pickett, was a native of Grafton, New Hampshire, where he was born in 1857. After attending New Hampshire public schools and also Tilton Seminary, he went to New York City, where he engaged in Y.M.C.A. work, being in charge of one of the branches there and continuing his education through courses at Columbia University. Finally, having decided to enter the ministry, he enrolled at Bangor Theological Seminary, from which he gra- duated in 1891. After serving several churches in different parts of New England, he accepted the call to Warren, bring- ing with him his wife, the former Della Butler of New Hart- ford, and his daughter, Harriet.
Mr. Blackman was severely handicapped by lameness, the result of an attack of polio at the age of six which necessi- tated his wearing a heavy brace for the rest of his life. His health became increasingly poor, and in 1914 he retired from the ministry. The remainder of his life was spent in New Milford, where he died in 1921 at the age of sixty-four.
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REV. FINIS E. DELZELL, 1915 - 1929
Mr. Delzell broke the long record of New England born ministers (with a couple of exceptions from New York State), as he was a native of the Middle West. He was born in Hen- derson, Missouri, in 1857, the son of the Rev. Andrew and Elizabeth Delzell, and was named Finis Ewing after a greatly beloved minister of that area. Both by inheritance and by name, therefore, young Finis was almost inevitably destined for the minstry.
After attending Henderson Academy and Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, he graduated from Cumberland Uni- versity in Lebanon, Tennessee, and his first pastorate was in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Meantime an older brother had come to Yale and, liking the East, had decided to remain here. When the young minister came North to visit his brother, he decided that he too would like to make his permanent home in New England. After pastorates in Mansfield and West- minster, Connecticut, he went to Brentwood, New Hampshire, where he remained six years. He had previously lost his wife and a six year old son, but here he married Mary Caverly, who was to prove herself a loyal and devoted wife and a woman much beloved by all who had the opportunity of knowing her.
At the suggestion of a Connecticut friend, Mr. Delzell applied for the vacant Warren pulpit, and here began a minis- try that was to continue through fourteen years of faithful and loving service. The membership of the church on Janu- ary first, 1915, was seventy, of whom twenty-five were male and forty-five female. A simple statement in a recent letter from Mrs. Delzell is eloquently revealing of their quiet, faith- ful ministry in Warren: "A number of people who had not been interested in Church sent their children and some of them came themselves. We liked that." During his pastorate forty-one persons were received into membership.
During their first year a Roll Call was held, each member being asked to respond to his name in person or by letter.
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The event proved so successful that it has become an annual custom, the meeting usually being preceded by a dinner. At this time special missionary collections have been received and clothing collected to be sent to places of need at home and abroad.
In 1924, in keeping with modern methods of raising the church budget, the Every Member Canvass was inaugurated, and this too has become an annual custom.
In the spring of 1925 Mr. Delzell was seriously injured by an automobile in New Haven, where he had gone to attend a lecture. After a month in the hospital he returned to his work; but his health was never fully restored and in Febru- ary, 1929, he submitted his resignation. He and Mrs. Delzell returned to their former home in Brentwood, where he lived until his death in 1946, in his eighty-ninth year. Mrs. Delzell, at this writing, much broken in health, is living at the home of a niece in New Hampshire.
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CHAPTER VIII.
A CHAPTER OF RECENT HISTORY
MR. HARRY A. STUDWELL, 1929 - 1931 REV. LESTER LINDERMAN, 1932 - 1937 REV. ELWYN K. JORDAN, 1938 - 1941 REV. FRANK W. BARBER, 1942 - 1944 REV. ARTHUR E. GREGG, 1944 - 1947 REV. GEORGE C. L. COOLEY, 1947 -
A S the twentieth century moved on through its second quarter, the country was confronted with events of tremendous importance, events that affected every communuity in the land. The First World War had ended, the Second became a horrible reality ; but the men and women of the twentieth century showed the same spirit of loyalty and courage as had characterized their forebears. The finan- cial crash of '29, the remedial measures that were attempted, the changes wrought by the New Deal, the amazing develop- ment of science and invention-these affected in one way or another the life of every man, woman, and child in the entire nation.
The material progress of the twentieth century is some- thing that the young people of this generation can scarcely appreciate, and even those whose memories reach back to the pre-radio, pre-aviation era have difficulty in realizing how rapid has been the transformation in the conditions of every- day living. To the small, rural towns, especially, these changes brought new hope. With good roads and the almost universal possession of automobiles, Warren ceased to be an isolated spot, difficult of access. With electricity, modern conveniences
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came into every home in the village. Consolidation of small district schools into one central school in an up-to-date build- ing brought modern education within the reach of every child. Old homes were remodeled and new ones were built. New families moved into the town, and by mid-century an attrac- tive and well-equipped Community Hall was making possible all kinds of social, recreational, and cultural opportunities. A new era of living had, indeed, been ushered in.
And what of the church in this second quarter of the twentieth century ? Like all rural churches, its greatest prob- lem was the securing and retaining of qualified ministers who were able and willing to accept the conditions of living in a country parish when larger communities could offer, not only higher salaries, but also, in many respects, wider opportuni- ties. Inevitably, terms of service would be shorter and the overturn more frequent than in early days. No future minis- ter would-or indeed should-rival the record of Parson Starr and remain to preach his half-century sermon. The new age was an age of mobility and change, and the pulpit naturally reflected the temper of the times. Nevertheless, good men, capable men, have continued to respond to the need, each making his own contribution to the life of church and com- munity ; while loyal parishioners, whether descendants of the founding fathers or newcomers in the community, are meet- ing the challenge of their day with the same steadfastness and courage as did the men and women of earlier generations.
MR. HARRY A. STUDWELL, 1929 - 1931
Mr. Studwell was a native of New York City, but while still a young child he was brought by his mother, to Glenville, in the town of Greenwich. There he joined the Methodist church and made his decision to enter Christian work. He completed a course in business school, studied for a year at Mount Hermon, and graduated in 1917 from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.
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Rejected from military service because of his eyesight, he became a war-time supply in the Methodist Church in Glenville, after which he held pastorates in Pound Ridge, Ban- tam, Gaylordsville, where he remained seven years, and New- town. From Newtown he came with his wife and daughter to Warren.
During their two and a half years in Warren the Stud- wells entered heartily into community as well as the church life-the Sunday School picnics, the Grange, the Farm Bureau. These years saw many improvements in the town: the hard- surfacing of the roads, the coming of electric power, the con- solidation of the district schools and the erection of a modern, efficient school building -- all these contributing toward more comfortable living and a more promising future for the old town.
Since leaving Warren Mr. Studwell has been engaged in various activities, being connected at the present time with a business concern in Bedford Hills, New York.
REV. LESTER LINDERMAN, 1932 - 1937
Mr. Linderman was a graduate of the Philadelphia Bible School, a school at which Mrs. Linderman was also a student. He was ordained in 1931 at Five Mile Baptist Church in Alle- gheny New York, and the following year he came to Warren, where for five years he and Mrs. Linderman entered whole- heartedly into all the activities of the church and community.
In July, 1935, all organizations of the town-Church, Grange, Schoool, Parent-Teacher Association, Garden Club, 4-H Club-combined in a two-day celebration of the Connecti- cut Tercentennary. Some of the exercises were held in the church, some in the Grange Hall. Historical addresses were given and exhibits were arranged of old fashioned flowers, antique furniture, old weapons, costumes, quilts, and other objects of historic interest.
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Mr. Linderman and his family-two little girls, Jean and Lois, had been born in Warren-held a large place in the affec- tions of the people and it was with regret that the church ac- cepted his resignation that he might become pastor of the Baptist Church in Triangle, New York. For one year Mr. Linderman served as president of The Association of Regular Baptists in western Pennsylvania. From the Triangle church comes the following tribute: "Mr. Linderman had a wonderful ministry here. Mrs. Linderman had a splendid work with the high school and young married groups. They were both highly esteemed and deeply loved not only by the church members, but by the entire community."
In 1952 came a tragic accident while he was driving a tractor that was being used in the excavation for a new church building. The letter continues: "Just before he passed away at the hospital, though suffering so intensely that he was begging them to help him, the nurses said he offered the most beautiful prayer they had ever heard. That was character- istic of his ministry here."
The following year Mrs. Linderman died also, like her husband deeply loved and greatly missed.
REV. ELWYN K. JORDAN, 1938 - 1941
Before coming to Warren Mr. Jordan had had a varied experience in educational and religious work. A native of Lewiston, Maine, he was a graduate of Bates College and of Hartford Theological Seminary. After two years of teaching in Pittsfield, Maine, he was ordained in the Free Baptist Church of that town and continued for five years as its pastor. He then became actively engaged in Y.M.C.A. work, and later was associated with the National Council of Boy Scouts of America. Upon resuming his active ministry, he came to the church in Warren.
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His Warren pastorate, though brief, was productive. Twenty-five members were received into the church, twenty of them on confession of faith.
One important event of his pastorate was the merging, in 1941, of the Church and Society, a legal procedure by which the cumbersome organization handed down from the early days of Congregationalism was finally abolished and the church became an incorporated body with power to transact all business.
Mr. Jordan was actively interested in the project of re- storing the old meeting house to its original architectural beauty, undoing, as far as possible, the unfortunate "moderni- zation" of 1859; and in 1937 a Restoration Committee was appointed, Miss Edith Sackett chairman, and a comprehensive plan of restoration was undertaken. Two years later, under the skillful direction of Mr. J. Frederick Kelly, the outstand- ing authority on New England church architecture, the initial part of this project was accomplished with the restoration of the beautiful Palladian window and the four flanking windows. Part of the original frame was retrieved from a chicken house and the upper middle sash of the Palladian window is from the original window.
It was with regret that Mr. Jordan's resignation was ac- cepted in order that he might become pastor of the Congrega- tional Church in Brookfield Center. After seven years in Brookfield, he accepted a call to the church in Killingworth, where he remained until his retirement at the age of seventy- one. He then moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he is living at the time of this writing.
REV. FRANK W. BARBER, 1942 - 1944
Mr. Barber entered the ministry by the educational route, after a varied experience as teacher and supervisor of schools. He came to Warren not as an ordained minister, but as a li- censed preacher, one who had taken particular satisfaction in
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building up small and often discouraged rural churches. A special .vote of the church, in accordance with church polity, enabled him to become full pastor, to conduct communion, and to perform all other pastoral functions.
The two years of Mr. Barber's ministry were years of activity and achievement. Twenty-three members were added to the roll, making the membership at the close of his service one hundred twenty-five, twenty-one of whom were on the absent list. Under a new set of by-laws important changes in organization were effected. Chief among these was the formation of a Church Council, composed of officers and standing committees, together with representatives of each organized group. The result was an increased number of active workers, with a definite division of labor and a conse- quent increase in interest and activity.
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